In Memory of Exoskeletons by Rebecca Cuthbert

Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another Baddie Book Review, happy to have you here!

For this review, I go into a different genre than I’ve dived into before. I checked out In Memory of Exoskeletons by Rebecca Cuthbert. In Memory of Exoskeletons is a collection of dark and speculative poetry. I was graced with being sent this collection of poems directly from Rebecca to read. When Rebecca offered to send it to me I was honest with her that I didn’t usually read poetry so she may not want my opinion on her book. She was super open and honest about the content and shared with me that this is a poetry book that all levels of poetry readers can enjoy. Since I usually love books that are dark and speculative in nature I thought if there was ever a poetry book I would enjoy it would be this one. So, let’s get into the review!

My Review

Although Rebecca sent me this book, I wanted to give it my full and honest review. And honestly, I loved it. I really appreciated the fact that she was willing to send me this book because I ended up enjoying it so much. It wouldn’t have been something I usually would have gravitated to, so I feel a lot more open to checking out some more poetry going forward.

I would have to give In Memory of Exoskeletons a 9/10 rating. I feel as though the reason I did enjoy this book so much was because I often find poetry hard to relate or connect to, but I didn’t struggle once with that in this book. I think Rebecca was very accurate in her description that this is a collection of poems that all levels of poetry readers can enjoy. I think if you’re a more avid poetry reader you may be able to find more descriptions or messages I passed over or missed since I am a novice, but I found I was still able to pick up on a lot throughout the different poems. Sometimes in poetry, it’s either that the content itself isn’t relatable, or the language used is so complicated so it’s hard to create a picture in my head of what the author is trying to convey. These things sometimes make poetry hard to enjoy for me. I appreciated that in Rebecca’s writing it’s easy to find connections. However, the speculative nature of her writing still leaves room to infer and create a picture that relates to the reader’s own life and not just the life of the person at the focus of the poem. The monotonous focus of the poetry also makes it easy to relate because it’s things that are every day, things most of us can relate to on some level or another.

The part I really enjoyed about these poems was the fact they seemed to focus on the mundane everyday experiences, ones we often don’t pay much mind to. I enjoyed this aspect of the poems because they made me see average things as not so average, and things that I should maybe appreciate more. However, a message I also found is that the mundane is gory, it brings out our true selves and exposes us to who we really are. The way we view the world and the things we have hope and passion for are exposed in the everyday routine. It all depends on how we choose to approach and see things, are we going to find humour in the dark, or cling to it and let it take us down? The second poem Better Homes and Gardens, June 1932  is a darker look into the simplicity of yard sales. I really loved this poem because I’ve often walked through yard sales and thought about how these things used to fill someone’s home and represent them in some way. There’s so much history in those items and yet we all just walk through thinking about what we can find at the best price. I thought it was interesting the idea that we can buy wisdom, history and past life, for fifty cents on someone’s driveway. It’s sad to think about it in that way too. I had a few favourite poems in the collection. These are also just my personal connections and relations to these poems. I really recommend you check this collection out because I feel as though everyone who reads it is going to have different relations and connections to the poems, and will find different messages in them.

I really enjoyed the poem My father has a rack of keys in his kitchen. This poem instantly made me think of my Grandpa and Dad. As a kid, I used to follow them around our farm in the summers. Each of them would walk around with this huge clip of keys on their hips and I used to often ask my Dad and Grandpa if they really knew where all of those keys went to. The answer was always no because those key rings were started by my great-grandpa and probably half of those keys didn’t have a door to open anymore, yet they still kept them all. I used to always wonder why and this poem reminded me why. It’s the history and the stories those keys represent, the doors and cars they once did open. This poem just made me think of all of those times on the farm and gave me that nostalgic feeling.

I really appreciated the poem Three Tears in a Bucket because I really related to the woman Lorraine in the poem. I’ve often found in my personal relationships I am always the one trying to push positivity or see the brighter side of things even when things suck. This is something about myself I appreciate but it’s also something I’ve seen others take advantage of. You can only do this so much when you receive a negative perspective on the other side all the time. Eventually, you just have to go search for more positivity or people who are willing to be open to it. This world sucks enough without so much negativity or hatred being added onto the everyday things. We need the everyday things to have some positivity or we would all never want to get out of bed. I got a similar feeling from the title poem In Memory of Exoskeletons. That poem made me think about how most of us sit at home watching things sort of crumble around us and we just have to try to find joy in the little things to make it through so we don’t crumble. There are good and bad things in this world but often the bad gets pressed more than the good so we spend our lives searching for the good, begging for it essentially. Just wishing that things didn’t have to be so complicated all the time, and could be lighter.

Driving by Willowbrook Cemetery made me laugh so much because I felt so similar to the author after reading it. She speaks in the poem about how she doesn’t want to be buried in a cemetery that doesn’t allow dogs on the grounds. We have so few things in this world that are good and you’re going to ban one of the purest and kindest creatures from walking on my grave? Ya, thanks I don’t want to be there for eternity either then. I think my favourite poem was the ender to the collection called Still Love. I got a little misty-eyed reading this one I won’t lie. It just reminded me that life is so fragile and so uncertain. The only thing we can be certain of is the ones we love and those who love us back. When it comes to the ones we love it’s really the simple things we will miss once they are gone, the way they affected our lives in the little ways. It’s the ones who love us who will help us when we can’t help ourselves anymore so to appreciate what we have in the moment is important.

The aspect that I really appreciated about this collection of poems was that it was funny, sad, happy, and terrifying all at the same time, which speaks very true to how everyday life is. I could just tell the care, thought, and intent that was put into all of this work, and it truly presented a story that’s relatable to life for a lot of us. Most of us don’t live these crazy exciting lives, we just live average lives where we just try to get through the day-to-day. I appreciated that a lot of these poems just nailed what it is to live in this very sedentary lifestyle and the things we can pay attention to a little more. I hadn’t expected this collection to bring me back to times in my childhood, but it’s really a collection that’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. I really can’t recommend this enough for anyone who is either very much into poetry or hasn’t read poetry before. It really is digestible for all levels of readers.

Thanks for checking out this review I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to check out all my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review!